Then there's the Western Conference scout who talked only if his identity was not disclosed. "I had a conversation with somebody the other night, another scout, and the Sharks came up. I was the one asking the questions," he said. "I don't know. It's a mystery."

That mystery, of course, is how a team that went 7-0-0 in January could go 0-4-3 in February before eking out a 2-1 victory in St. Louis on Tuesday night. That win may have stopped the bleeding, but it's still too soon to know if the patient is on the road to recovery.

San Jose Sharks' Joe Thornton (19) is congratulated on his goal against the St. Louis Blues by Dan Boyle (22) and Patrick Marleau (12) in the second period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, in St. Louis. The Sharks won 2-1. (AP Photo/Bill Boyce)

Maybe the truth is that San Jose's overall record -- 8-4-3 entering Friday night's contest against a Chicago Blackhawks (13-0-3) team trying to break the NHL record for consecutive games without a regulation loss to start a season -- is an accurate reflection of where the Sharks stand: Not as good as they looked in January, not as bad they've looked in February.

"I'd like to think we're a little closer to the first seven games, but we have to prove that," coach Todd McLellan said Thursday.

"We're either a team that can be real effective, or we're inefficient and we lose games. The next little bit will tell us what we really are."

Any explanation of what has gone wrong for the Sharks involves measurable data and intangibles that don't come with numbers attached -- competitiveness, execution and confidence.

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Lack of offense remains the biggest issue as goaltending and defensive zone play has been strong. The top line of Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski that produced a combined 40 points in January has produced only six in February. Secondary scoring has been in short supply all season, and it became a greater concern as the losses mounted.

San Jose's offensive struggles have surprised the scout, who likes the Sharks' roster. And with the officials calling games more tightly this season, "it seems like the type of players they have would find it even easier to play now. I don't get it."

McLellan was talking about offensive changes across the league Thursday, but his words applied to his own team's style of play as well when he talked about how teams no longer are able to slow the game down as they bring the puck down the ice.

"Teams back check so hard," he said. "Teams take the middle of the rink away."

And, yes, McLellan added, he and his players talk about that all the time.

"We've got to keep a north-south game in mind so that we keep our tempo up. Then when we do that, we can look to find and make plays," he said. "If you try and slow it down through the neutral zone, it doesn't work anymore."

The drop-off in scoring is closely tied to a power play in need of repair. After going 12 for 39 in January with the man advantage, San Jose is 2 for 35 in February.

Conversations about why the power play has deteriorated can get quickly into those less quantifiable areas.

"Just execution," defenseman Dan Boyle said. "Guys missing passes they normally would make in their sleep. Some of it's bounces, but you've done it a million times and there's no reason you don't do it."

Competitiveness does play a role in one statistical area, faceoffs. Normally among the league's best at taking draws, the Sharks had only a 39 percent success rate in a 1-0 overtime loss to Nashville on Feb. 12 and the previous two games weren't much better.

But when McLellan talks about his team's compete factor -- or lack of it -- he relies more on what he sees on the ice than on numbers.

"The puck doesn't care who gets to it first. It just sits there and waits for somebody to get to it and we can watch that," he said. "We talk about board battles and net battles."

Along those lines, Jaffe also wondered whether the Sharks might not have the "natural DNA to score more of the kind of goals being seen in the NHL these days.

"The San Jose Sharks have had the reputation as a team that's got a lot of great players on it, but kind of mellow and a 'hey, we're going to be OK' kind of thing," he said.

"Sometimes the reality is you're not going to be OK. Sometimes you need to find a way to get -- and it's a cliché -- nasty, greasy, grimy, dirty goals."

The Sharks, Jaffe added, also might be having confidence issues.

"You always have to look at the Sharks and you have to say, 'How confident are they?' " Jaffe said.

"They say winning breeds winning -- and while this team has won some, going to the Western Conference finals -- every once in a while you watch them and say, 'Do they believe that they're that good?' "